Home Sweet Home

I know I promised some profound words to sum up the trip but at this point all I can say is "Wow." It's great to be home but I think we all miss the adventure that each day on the road provided. It all worked out so well that I'm not sure I would change much of anything. Having almost all of our rooms booked for the first 3/4 of the trip worked out very well. However, leaving the last several stops unbooked allowed us some flexibility we would otherwise not have had. The books on CD/tape were great for the kids. For those of you who said we were crazy to do it without a DVD player all I can say is "neener, neener, nee-ner." We were right, it was uncessary and would have been more of a distraction. One of the books on CD they listened to was 7 1/2 hours long. Hard to find a DVD to match that unless they are gonna watch Roots. I wish I had done a better job tracking the cash I spent. The only problem with the fact that I did not is that I don't know what we spent on food/souvenirs/entrance fees, etc. All the gas and hotels were on the credit card so they are easier to track. All in all it only cost us a little more than the 6 days/5 nights we spent at DisneyWorld last year. And this time every thing we saw was real, not a recreation of something real. A pretty good deal I think and a far better value. Thanks to all for following along with us and for all your comments on the blog.

Day 23 - Another change in plans

This morning we got out of the hotel just before 10am and were at Oceans of Fun, KC's water park, by 11. What a blast! We spent over two hours on the slides, in the pools, you name it, getting wet! By a little after 1 we left and went for lunch. Coulda ate at Gates BBQ (if you know - you know) but the kids vetoed. Since I'd eaten Q twice the day before I gave in. Bummer. Especially since we then spent nearly an hour driving around, stopping at a AAA recommendation that had closed. Even though we had returned to the highway and taken another exit we ended up looping back by Gates! Eventually we stoppedat an A&W. The kids got their burger and dog (Miles, Emma respectively) and Eve and I had some double cheesburgers. Only our 3rd fast food stop in 23 days. A Burger King in Idaho and an In and Out Burger in Nevada.
If you will recall from yesterday's installment we had still not found a room in St Louis. And that was still the case just after 3pm today, finishing lunch at the A&W on the outskirts of Kansas City. At this point we had a family discussion and agreed to skip St. Louis and make the 9 hour drive to Yellow Springs. I'm sure a trip up the arch would have been fun but after all that we had seen and experienced over the previous 3 weeks we decided it could wait until another time. Eve drove the day shift and I the night. We pulled in about 2:16am EDT. First appearance in this time zone in 22 days. Miles slept the last 4 1/2 hours or so. Emma the last 20 minutes! They are all snug in their own beds right now and I'm sitting here at the computer, typing away, with a Westmalle Tripel. After over 6,380 miles I was ready for it.
After a good nights sleep I'll probably put up another post with some more reflections on the trip. Check it out 'cause I'm sure I'll throw in some "lessons learned" elements. Handy for sure when you decide to do the same thing. If you dare. ;-) But mainly just a few thoughts on the experience. To give you a hint I'll tell you this - I think it will go down as a trip to remember, and I mean that in the best way. I'm pretty sure it will not go down as "The Trip From Hell!"
On the way back I started planning the Southern Loop tour, coming to a city near you (Thatis, if y'all might live in the Virginas, Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and maybe even back to Missouri to visit St Louis). Or perhaps we'll take the Northeast by storm. But, I think we'll need to rest first.

Tha' be some f-i-i-i-i-i-i-ne Bar-B-Que!

Well, as expected, my motion for touring the Oklahoma National Stockyards went down to an overwhelming defeat. Instead we drove through the old Bricktown nieghborhood and saw their very nice minor league ballpark as we drove by. Then it was up to Lincoln Park to visit the Science Museum at the Omniplex. It was a very cool, hands on, science museum where we saw optical illusions, mirror tricks, balancing tests, color experiments and many other fascinating wonders. We split the museum at 1pm to head for KCMO, aka Kansas City, Missouri. On the way out of Oklahoma we saw a single sign for Oklahoma’s Best BBQ. One sign, just before the exit. We thought that was a good sign (as opposed to some places that put out literally hundreds of signs, probably because their food sucks!) and although suspicious of such lofty claims we decided to check it out. Not for all of us to go in because it wasn’t really “mealtime.” But how can you pass that up? I went it and checked out the menu. Instantly, the place had a good feel about it. They had a pulled pork sandwich but this is beef country so I opted for a sliced brisket sandwich with a side of hot and a side of mild and fries. It was to-go so I grabbed it, got in the car and we hit the road. Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my. This is some fiiiiiiiine BBQ. Emma, Eve and myself shared the brisket and we were all just blown away by how good it was, especially with the sauce. What a find! I think the place was called Johnny’s Original Rib House or something like that. I’ll be looking into it later. One reason we only got one sandwich was a) it was not meal time and b) a major part of the days plan was a visit to the world famous Arthur Bryant’s BBQ in Kansas City. Still, it left us yearning for more. But it was of to KC. We arrived here about 6:30pm and drove straight to Bryant’s. Yummm. Sliced pork for me, and Eve and the kids split some sausage and a long end of ribs. All was fantastic. The kids were less than thrilled with the place but ate OK. The sausage was interesting as it was sliced in long segments. Very tasty though. The place was moderately busy and we were in and out in 45 minutes or so. Our room tonight is pretty high end, the Hyatt Crown Center. I booked it this morning from Oklahoma City. Was going to book St. Louis tonight but it looks like the hotels are filled up. Time for Plan B. Any suggestions?
BTW I'm not posting pics tonight but I'll try and get some up tomorrow.

Day 21 - Cadillac Ranch

Today we left Albuquerque for Oklahoma City. Our last really big drive of the trip, nearly 8 hours long. Despite that we still didn't leave Bob and Kay's until 11am. I'll just have to chalk that up to the fact that they are such wonderful hosts! Despite the late departure AND losing an hour crossing into CDT, we still made it to the Western edge of Oklahoma City about 9:15pm local time. And I attribute the short commute to some of the most boring and attraction free landscape we have seen to date. New Mexico wasn't bad and Oklahoma was suprisingly rather attractive. But the Texas panhandle is a vast expanse of nothingness as far as the eye can see and that's pretty damn far! It did however provide us with a single, world famous roadside attraction, the Cadillac Ranch, just west of Amarillo, TX. Exit #60 to the service road, and walk out into the dirt field to see 10 Cadillacs ranging from a 1949 Club Coupe to a 1963 Sedan half buried in the dirt. I just learned today that in 1997 it was moved about two miles west of it's original location to avoid the sprawl around Amarillo. Tomorrow we hope to take in an attraction or two in downtown Oklahoma City. Unfortunately my vote of a tour of the Oklahoma National Stockyards will probably not make the cut. Stay tuned!

Day 20 - Father's Day in Albuquerue

Opting not to drive on Father's Day we extended our stay in Albuquerque to spend Father's Day at Bob & Kay's. Eve and the kids gave me this very cool rock coaster. After meeting their daughter Deb, her husband Sean and their daughter Allie we all headed out to take the tram to the top of Sandia Peaks at 10,378 feet above sea level. We all survived without incident! After that we returned to their home for an excellent dinner. We all hit the hay a little early (around midnight!) to prepare ourselves for the 8 hour drive to Oklahoma City on Monday.

Day 19 - Santa Fe

This morning we awoke well rested in Albuquerque and after a nice breakfast on Bob and Kay's patio we drove into downtown Albuquerque. There we had "second breakfast" at the Frontier Restaurant, a place that Eve used to frequent during her stay in Albuquerque some 25 years ago. After that we visited a movie memoribilia shop operated by one of Eve's old boyfriends from Gallup. I think he was a little surprised! At the store I came across a VHS copy of Carnival of Souls and Eve got it for me as an early Father's Day present. Can't wait to watch it! Then we drove up to Sante Fe. Sante Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is one of the oldest cities in the US and contains the oldest known house in the US. It is very arts oriented and the main square downtown, over 400 years old, is surrounded by a myriad of art galleries, restaurants and gift shops. We took all of that in and then had a great little meal at the Blue Corn Cafe. After that it was back to Albuquerque where I sit now, trying to catch up on blogging.

Day 18 - Grand Canyon to Albuquerque

We slept in a little so we just took the bus back to Yavapai Observation Point to see the canyon from the same physical point but at a different time of day. As you might expect, it looked somewhat different. Then it was back to the lodge to pack up and hit the road. The drive to Albuquerque was a little over six and a half hours, farther than we had driven in one day for quite a while. And to add to that we added a little bit of a scenic route to see a portion of the Painted Desert. That proved to be worthwhile as the two major attraction of the day were on that route. The first was the Tusayan Ruins and museum about 22 miles east of the park entrance. There was a small museum and a short hike to see the ruins of a village inhabited by Anasazi Indians in the 1100's. It was about a 20 minute stop and Eve spotted a 3 or 4 foot gopher snake in the ruins. See picture. Down the road from there was stopped at Desert View where there was a 70 foot watchtower built in 1930 to mimic the towers built by the Anasazi. We climbed to the top where were were treated to a spectacular view of the Grand Canyon on one side and the Painted Desert on the other. From there we began the long drive to Albuquerque where we would meet, for the first time, our first cousins once removed, Bob and Kay Sturm. We arrived around 9pm, a little behind schedule, to a very warm welcome from Bob and Kay. We all sat around for a while before Eve and the kids went to bed and I sat up for another hour or so with Bob and Kay. On the way through Arizona we saw this really cool arrowhead cloud pointing our way Albuquerque.

Day 17 - To the Grand Canyon

Eve was feeling much, much better this morning so we headed for the Grand Canyon. The first attraction of the day was driving over Hoover Dam. They were doing random security checks before you drover over the dam. We were waved through. I guess we look remarkably unsuspicious! That put us in Arizona, our 13th state of the trip. At first it looked a lot like Nevada then suddenly we started seeing a lot more green vegetation - but still really hot. Finally we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park and from the entrance it was only about 4 or 5 miles to the Yavapai Lodge, our home for the night. That was quite different than Yellowstone where it was about 60 miles from the park entrance. By this time it was getting a bit late and we had not really planned our visit here. There are three free shuttle bus routes (many of the buses run on natural gas) that take you to various points in the parks. We caught a bus that took us to Yavapai Observation Point. When we first reached the rim of the canyon we were all just totally blown away at the immensity and the beauty of it all. We walked along the rim to several observation points and eventually settled on one to sit down and watch the sunset. After that we caught the bus back to the hotel, had a snack at the Yavapai Lodge cafeteria, and walked back to the lodge in the dark. A little bit tricky but we made it OK. Apologies to those of you who have been following the blog day by day; I've fallen behind a bit and an just catching up Saturday evening here in Albuquerque.

Day 16 - A Change in Plans

Day 16 was supposed to be a drive to Grand Canyon National Park. However, Tuesday night Eve contracted food poisoning from her meal at the Macaroni Grill so we stayed here in Henderson another night. She rested easy yesterday. The kids and I hung out here at Grandma's and watched TV. We did get out a bit in the afternoon for some lunch and a trip to a couple of stores. It was too damn hot to do anything else! Eve is feeling much better this morning and we will soon hit the road to the Grand Canyon.

Day 15 - A couple more shots

The shot of the eggs was from the World's Largest Thermometer in Baker. And this other exit must surely be the last road in the world (if you put them in alphabetical order - click to enlarge).

Day 15 - The desert

Today we had to leave our hotel in San Diego. :-( Most unfortunate since it was looking to be a beautiful day. It was about a 5 hour drive to Henderson, NV. We had a long overdue car wash as we left. In Hesperia we finally got Eve to an In and Out Burger. All the food on the menu was Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double-Double (double meat, double cheese) and Fries. All orders are prepared to order. Very cool and dang tasty too! Our one road side stop came in Baker, CA where we saw the World's Largest Thermometer and an unexpected curiousity the Bun Boy Motel. I don't even wanna know! Finally we arrived at Eve's mom's in Henderson. We all went to fun dinner at the Macaroni Grill in Henderson. Driving through the desert was interesting. I can't believe people live there! It was 103 degrees!!

Day 14 - Guess what we did today?

That's right! Another day at the beach! We headed out early and got ourselves a couple of body boards (little foam surfboards) and hit the beach about noon. It was a little chilly but we did manage a bit of sun as well. The kids had a ball with their body boards! This evening Eve's old friend Gina and her son Ethan visited for some pizza and some beach time. Tomorrow we leave here for Henderson to visit Eve's Mom.

Day 13 - Another day at the beach

A nice lazy day. We hung around the room and watched Chicken Run on Cartoon Network before getting ready to hit the beach. It was another nice day at the beach but the clouds rolled in a little early and we came back to the room for an early dinner and then a walk down the strand to Mission Beach. Eve and the kids got some ice cream and I stopped in at the Liar's Club, a 'beer bar' on Mission Blvd. It's 1.1 miles from our hotel. I had a Lost Abbey Red Barn on draft and a bottle of Monk's Cafe Ale, brewed in Belgium and imported into Santa Barbara, CA for Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia. We were thinking about going to the San Diego Zoo on Monday but all decided that we'd rather spend the last day of our break relaxing at the beach.

Day 12 - A Day at the Beach.

Yep, like the title says. It was sunny, it was warm. Nice waves. We had some fun. Eve's Aunt Ginny and Uncle Danny came to visit. A great day with the one minor exception. I failed to sunscreen my chest and it's pretty toasted.

Day 11 - The Midpoint

Hey folks, here we are in San Diego. First thing we did today was make the drive down to Redondo Beach to see where Eve grew up. We parked at the Redondo Beach Pier where she used to hang out. What a cool place! We walked around and ended up wandering into the Arcade. Eve got us a roll of quarters and we hit the games. Air hockey, Ski-ball, Wedges and Ledges, those machines with stuffed animals and a crane (I finally got one! - first try too!). After killing some time there we drove off to Captain Kidd's a seafood market and restaurant that she used to visit as a kid. Miles enjoyed some shrimp cocktail (his second serving of the trip), Eve and Emma split the fish and chips and I had two fish tacos. Eve and I also shared a large draft of Fat Tire. By then it was time to make the hour and forty five minute drive to San Diego. It only took us about 3 hours. Thank god we got out when we did. We hit delays both in L.A. and in San Diego. We arrived here at 5pm and man was I exhausted from that drive. We are staying on Mission Blvd in Pacific Beach. Pacific Beach is known the "party beach" in San Diego and I have no problem believing that. It's a very lively atmosphere, not necessarily family-oriented. But I think we'll be just fine. We walked down the street and got some ultra thin slices of NY style pizza and then hit the beach. The kids were just thrilled to get there. Despite the 61 degree temperatures this evening they stripped down to there suits and walked out into the waves and had an absolute blast. Not to suprising since they did the same thing in Pacifica where the water was much colder and rougher. We are so looking forward to spending 4 nights here, 3 whole days sun to sun.
Midday today was also the midpoint in our trip as far as number of days are concerned. One big difference is that we have 3 entire non driving days on the second half as opposed to just one during the first half. And on that one non-driving day in the first half we drove the 142 mile loop around Yellowstone. Seems like ages ago. Gas prices have been painful but not much worse than expected before we left. We did see a full serve on the PCH that was $4.99 a gallon. I pulled up to the pump, checked the price and promptly pulled away from the pump. Geez! Down the road in Cambria we ended up paying $3.79, the highest of the trip. Prices seem to be around $3.49 most places in CA though we have seen $3.29. Our first gas stop in CA was somewhere between Truckee and Sacremento at a Chevron station. It was the first station we'd seen in a while and we pulled in. It was 'Members Only' no cash, no credit. I was beside myself. What the heck is up with that? Needless to say we got back on the freeway and hit the next exit. Haven't seen anymore of those.
Miles adds: The waves today were pretty big. I almost fell over, flat on my back into the water. But it was fun anyway.

Day 10 - The Pacific Coast Highway

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Our plan today was to drive down to Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara. But it was the route we chose that would be the major attraction. The Pacific Coast Highway, aka Highway 1, winds along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Mountains on one side, the pounding Pacific on the other. What more can I say, it was a breathtaking and beautiful drive. As we drove through Big Sur we were ready for lunch. We stopped at a deli and got some sandwiches there and considered driving back a half mile or so to the State Park for a picnic. However I'd spotted a little side road that had a sign indicating a beach at the bottom. What the heck. Plus the kids were just dying to get back in the water. Turns out it was a two mile drive, twisting and winding it's way through all kinds of amazing trees and other flora, about one lane wide most of the time, max speed 15mph! Sure enough though at the bottom was Pfeiffer Beach State Park. Excellent. We parked, grabbed our sandwiches and headed for the beach! Emma and I went ahead and Eve and Miles went to make use of the parks plumbing facilities. The sign just before the beach stated: "Surf subject to unexpected life threatening waves and currents. Climbing, swimming & wading unsafe." Oh my, WADING is unsafe?? Sure enough we get to the beach and the wind and waves were just wicked! A few folks were sitting way back against the rocks taking it in. Any and all possessions were weighted down. But, oh my it was beautiful. Too picturesque for pictures (but I'll try anyway). In fact it was hard to snap a photo because the wind made it impossible to hold the camera steady. The sand blew into your legs so hard it hurt! We gave it our best but really couldn't get through lunch. As soon as you opened your sandwich sand blew into it. I did give it an extra crunch with each bite. Here's a shot of Eve, Emma and Miles walking back. Miles is the little guy in the background.

Day 9 - The Pacific Ocean at last!

After wandering around San Francisco we drove 30 minutes or so to our motel in Pacifica, the Sea Breeze Motel. What a great find this place was! I reserved it a few weeks ago. For $95 bucks we have an ultra clean, non smelly room a few car lenghts from the roaring Pacific Ocean. And an ocean view to boot! I think we'd like to stay here for a few days but tomorrow we make the beautiful drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to Carpinteria, just north of Los Angeles. Here's a great pic of some very happy kids enjoying the cool breeze.

Day 9 - First stop: Jelly Belly

Last night we survived the night in Fairfield, CA. We stayed at a Days Inn that was a stones throw from the freeway. Fortunately my CPAP drowned out most of the sound. I'd reserved the place online that afternoon from a parking lot in Reno. Our first stop was the Jelly Belly jellybean factory in Fairfield. Pretty cool and we all got free jellybeans. Their newest flavor is Pomegranete and would you believe they have a a Jalapeno flavor? Got some but haven't tried'em yet. Then into San Francisco for some lunch and a walk through Chinatown. What a load of junk they have for sale there! Fun though. On the way to the car we found a little playground park on an offstreet in Chinatown for the kids to play in.

Day 8 - California here we come!

Today was the first day of the second week of our travels. We are holding up amazingly well. The kids got along so great all day today. They were creating Doodle Dudes, made up little characters that they would draw and assign types and names to. Whatever works! After grabbing a few groceries from last nights base, Elko, Nevada (isn't that always on episodes of Cops? - that's what Millman told me) we head toward California. In Nevada we checked out a couple of 'roadside attractions.' The first in Imlay, NV was a house and sculpture area called Thunder Mountain, created by a man of Native American Indian descent. He built is all as a monument to the Indian peoples. It was all built from junk he collected in the desert, stuff the white man threw away. This was meant to be in contrast to how the Indians always used every bit of of everything they took from the earth. I'll include some pics. Moving on we stopped in Lovelock, NV and has some lunch at the Cowpoke Cafe, a little restaurant/diner in the town. This was not a planned stop, just an impromptou discovery. It was pretty good and the kids were champion eaters, impressive since they were eating chocolate donuts and goldfish most of the way there! In Reno we took an exit downtown to check out an attraction we saw on roadsideamerica.com. It was an old VW beetle converted into a giant spider and put on top of a two story building downtown. I think the building used to be a car repair place. Not sure. Now it's a homeless shelter and sits next to the SPCA adoption center. Then we got outta Reno. The landscape instantly changed from brown mountains to green mountains when we hit the California border. We stopped in Truckee to visit the new Fifty Fifty Brewpub and restaurant. The brewmaster there is a man that I met several years ago from the Babblebelt. For a number of years he was the brewmaster at Flossmoor Station where he nabbed a few GABF medals. The beers at 50/50 were excellent and included one of the best tasting Belgian Tripels I've ever had. If you're in the area. . . While in Reno I got online and reserved us a room in Fairfield, CA, only 30 or 40 miles out of San Francisco, tomorrows destination. It is also home to the Jelly Belly jellybean company and I think we may take in the free 40 minute tour tomorrow.

Balanced Rock - Castleford, Idaho

Here is Balance Rock. Fortunately I stopped that joker Eve before she tried to destroy what millions of years of erosion had created!

Craters of the Moon

Here are some pics from Craters of the Moon. Pictures to not really do it justice tho. The big mound is a cinder cone. Miles and I climbed it and I took a pictures of us. We were surprised to find the big tree growning on top of it! Also a pic of a spatter cone and a field of lava rocks that looks like Mordor from Lord of the Rings.

Day 7 - To the Moon!

Day 7. One full week on the road. This is just gonna be a quickie and no time for pics. We didn't get a chance to post last night because we tried something different - driving at night. We just wanted to let y'all know we were not mauled by grizzlies nor did we drive over a cliff. On the way out of Yellowstone we drove by the Bald Eagle Mgmt Area and witnessed an eagle sitting on top of a tree, right by it's nest. Very cool. From there we headed to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. Acres and acres of balsaltic lava rock formations. Quite the eerie place. Then we drove down past Twin Falls to see a formation called Balance Rock. On the approach we were driving through miles and miles of farmland that didn't look all that different from Ohio, only flatter if you can imagine that. Then WHAM! all the sudden we were driving through 70 or 80 foot high rock formations. Talk about a sudden change of landscape. And then we saw Balanced Rock. A 40 ton, 48 foot high, 40 foot wide boulder, perched on a platform that was about 3 feet by 17 inches. Our next destination was Nat-Soo-Pah, an RV park with a swimming pool feed by geothermal springs. We arrived about 9pm, an hour before they closed. Just enough time for some swimming and several trips down the waterslide by the kids. We put them in their 'jamas and drove the 30 miles down to Jackpot, NV and decided we'd go a little farther since the kids were about to crash. Wells, NV was only another 50 miles or so down the road. The Super 8 was booked full and most of the other places looked to questionable for a nice midwestern family of four to spend the night. After driving around a bit we decided to head for Elko. Elko was pretty booked too but Wanda at the Motel 6 said if we drove 25 blocks (short ones) down to the Esquire Inn at 5th and Idaho they would have a room at the Motel 6 rate. Uh, OK sure. It was late and we were desperate! So we did, and sure enough they had a room. So that's where we are now and our immediate plan is to get the %$# out. No, it's not that bad but not a place where we want to hang. So TTFN, TTYL, etc. etc. I'll try and get some pics from Craters and Balanced Moon up later today, probably tonight.

Day 6 - Sturm's Gone Wild!

Wildlife that is! We got up pretty early and drove the entire 142 mile Great Loop around Yellowstone National Park. We saw amazing sights and loads and loads of wildlife. The kids kept count and here's what we got: 235 buffalo, 50 elk, 1 coyote, 1 big horn sheep and a few mule deer. We drove right by a sight where folks were lined up to see a grizzly with her two cubs. We didn't know what was going on so we missed it. Bummer! We also just missed a black bear dining on the carcus of a baby elk while the mother elk looked on. We were able to see the mother elk but the bear & carcus were behind a tree. A real treat though was when a small herd of 12 - 18 buffalo crossed the road in front of us. And they didn't just cross the road like some we saw earlier. They hung out in the middle of the road while a few of them munched grass on the side of the road. They had a few calves with them. Some ended up crossing right in front of our car while a few other walked right by, a few feet from the driver side window. I must say it was a little spooky, especially when a few of them did a little buffalo dance, jumping around a bit. One of the most amazing sights was taking the short walk to Artist's Point and seeing the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I'll include a pic. We are super whooped so that's all folks!

Day 5 - Cody, WY to Yellowstone

We started the day in Cody, WY. Since we only had less than 100 miles to our destination in Yellowstone (actually it was a bit farther but not much) we kicked around Cody until 11am or so. The weather was really nice so Eve and I took turns taking a jaunt through downtown. We decided we would pass on the Buffalo Bill Historical Center complex since we wanted to maximize our time at Yellowstone. It truly is a complex, containing a Buffalo Bill Museum, a Whitney Museum of Western Art, a Plains Indians museum, a firearms museum and a Natural History museum. Sounds nice - maybe next time. I did check out the beautiful cherry back bar at the Hotel Irma. It was a gift to Buffalo Bill from Queen Victoria. It was only about 30 miles to Yellowstone and another 65 to our digs at the Old Faithful Inn. And that 65 is on roads with a max speed of 45mph. Took a little longer than we thought and we got here around 2:30 or 3:00. We saw about half a dozen buffalo in the wild as we worked our way to the hotel. After checking in we took a long walk around the Geyser Basin near the hotel. The area is just thick with geysers and hot springs. We must have seen 20 or more geysers and even more hot springs. Then this evening we went out to watch the eruption of Old Faithful, a real treat. One cool thing I've failed to mention is that the speed limit in South Dakota and Wyoming is 75 mph. How cool is that??

Day 5 - Yellowstone - 2 more pics

A couple more pictures from Yellowstone. One of the Morning Glory pool. It's blue in the center due to the incredibly hot water and yellowish-orangish around the edges due to the micro organisms that live there. The other of course is Old Faithful.

Lovely South Dakota. By Emma

In my opinion, South Dakota was MARVELOUS. Everything about it too. The deer had very large ears, the jackapheasalopes were beautiful. Mt Rushmore was very spectacular. Crazy Horse was very interesting. The Badlands had lots of mountains. I really liked South Dakota.

Day 4 - Custer, SD to Cody, WY

Another fun filled day on the road. Up and out around 8:30 we drove back to Rapid City, passing the Crazy Horse monument on the way for a quick photo op, and visited the Reptile Gardens. Miles was psyched about this one and I must say it was pretty cool. Founded in 1937, it's the largest collection of reptiles in the world. We started off with the Crocodillian show. Fifty five crocs and gators and one guy with a stick. It was chilly today so they were pretty quiet. Until the bucket of raw chicken came out! We skipped the birds of prey show and the snake show in order to take in the main exhibit building. It was very cool and contained some of the most poisonous snakes in the world. Most of the top poisonous snakes are Taipans. I think it was the 3rd most poisonous snake who has a venom that one bite contains enough to kill 300 humans. Fortunately they were all behind glass! We stayed there until a little after 11:00am which put us on a tight schedule for the trip to Cody, WY. Before we left we hit the gift shop. Souvenir shopping has become the favorite part of the trip for the kids. Each place we visit the first thing they ask about is the gift shop. Yikes! We drove to Cody, for the most part following the directions provided to us by the GPS. I can't believe how much time I spent printing all those maps we hardly use! It's pretty good on the large scale but misdirected us to two hotels. My favorite feature is the little box down in the corner that tells you what time you are going to arrive at your destination. Very handy for keeping on schedule. The highlight of the drive was our trip through the Bighorn Mountains. We drove up to almost 10,000 feet, saw some elk, some moose (meese?) and drove by some snow that was 4 or 5 feet deep. The views from the mountain were beyond spectacular. We blew off the GPS a time or two and took some alternate routes that proved to be more than worth the slight delay. The GPS eventually recalculated and it really did only cost us a few minutes here and there. We arrived in Cody around 7:30pm MDT. We are staying at the Hotel Irma, a hotel built around 1902 by Buffalo Bill Cody for his daughter Irma. We had dinner this evening just down the street at Adriano's Italian Restaurant, by far the best dinner of the trip.

Day 3 - One happy camper

(See below for more on Day 3 and a late addition to Day 2) If you are not already aware I should inform you that Emma is a bit of an American history fan and has particular interest in the Presidents. Mt. Rushmore was something she had been interested in visiting for some time. So I snapped this shot of her in front of the monument (click to enlarge). The kids have been great. The first couple of days were tough as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin are not exactly filled with amazing sights. So today the finally got a taste of what the rest of the country has to offer. They've been amusing themselves in the car with various games, puzzles and Emma with her MP3 player. We brought some books on tape and CD but yesterday the stories on CD were putting me to sleep while driving. So last night I ripped some CDs and put them on her MP3 player. We also picked up a new set of headphones and a dual headphone jack at an ancient Wal-Mart in Blue Earth, MN. So today the finished a 6 CD story on the MP3 player. They really enjoyed that. Perhaps almost as I enjoyed listening to the Sirius satellite radio. The Early Classics on Vinyl station, broadcast from the Rock Hallf of Fame in Cleveland is mighty choice.

One more thing: I had an elk filet for dinner tonight. A first for me and it was great!

Day 3 - Mt Rushmore

After the Badlands (see prior post) it was only an hour or so into the Black Hills and onto Mt. Rushmore. Emma was beside herself with excitement as we approached the National Memorial. We were also a little surprised that her excitement rubbed off on her brother! We were all in awe as we approached the monument. It was cool and windy and there were even some sprinkles. That might sounds like a drag but it didn't dampen our spirits at all. And by cool I'm talking a high of about 50 degrees today. When I checked on the weather before we headed out this morning it said "feels like 29." Good think we packed some warm clothes! After viewing the monument we went downstairs and some some of the excellent exhibits on how it was created. One thing I found interesting was that Borglum (the sculptor) selected the presidents to indicate the founding (Washington), expansion (Jefferson) , preservation (Lincoln)and development (T. Roosevelt) of the United States.

Day 3 - These Badlands are treating us good.

Hey folks, Today we got out of Mitchell and embarked on our 350 miles (Yippie, no 500 mile drive today!) towards Western South Dakota. Not too far into it we crossed Lake Francis Case (on the map it looks more like a river but appears to be a series of lakes according to the names) and the landscape changed abruptly. We went from praires and grass lands to some pretty serious hills. After an hour or so of that we started to see some of the rock formations that make up the Badlands National Park. To tour the Badlands we took the approximately 30 mile Loop Road through the park. At the beginning of the loop, just before the park, we stopped at the Prarie Dog Ranch Gift Shop and fed some peanuts to some seriously overweight praire dogs. The kind young lady at the store was also gracious enough to let us use an electrical outlet to charge our camera battery. The Road Warrior left the power ON after charging the battery the night before. So there we were, minutes from the entrance to our first National Park and we had no camera battery. I couldn't let you guys down like that so Eve suggested we bum a little electricty from them. Great idea! Twenty minutes later the camera had enough juice to not only get us through the Badlands but Mt. Rushmore as well. The Badlands is an amazing landscape and home to buffalo, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, praire dogs and many more. We did not seen any buffalo but did witness a pronghorn antelope in the distance with it's baby antelope running around. Pretty cool. We got out of the car and did a little hiking through the eerie landscape and also stopped at some pull offs for some amazing vistas. Click the pic to enlarge!

Day 2 - Yellow Springs Youth Encounters Goofy Weiner

Miles Sturm, age 7 of Yellow Springs, had an unexpected encounter with a big goofy weiner in Mitchell, South Dakota. The youth was unharmed and only mildy soiled with condiments.